Free Smash & Grab by Amy Christine Parker

others or show any sign that something’s up, not with him and all his boys watching.They miss nothing.
    I wait for Gabriel to tell him about my medal. A month ago he wouldn’t have, no matter what. We’re family. That comes first. But now…after all the time he’s spent with the Florencia boys and the way they seem to get tighter all the time…I’m almost sure he’ll offer it up.
    Benny clears his throat. “Way smooth.”
    Soldado takes a bite of sandwich. Tuna salad. Ugh. I hate the stuff. The smell. It makes me want to gag. “Well, what are you waiting for? Unpack the bills.”
    We unzip the duffel bags and start stacking the cash in front of him while he eats. The pile is impressive, and his eyes light up. “Oh yeah. Now, that’s what I’m talkin’ about.” He puts down his sandwich and thumbs through a stack of cash. “Nice.”
    It takes him a while to count it and then count it again. Fifty thousand dollars. He stacks it into seven piles: one for each of us, one for him for arranging the getaway car and supplying the guns and equipment, and one for the Eme because any job done in their hood is subject to their tax, which amounts to half the take. Don’t pay it and they find out? (And they always find out.) You and everyone you love gets a hit put on their heads. It’s the cost of doing business. Simple as that. Still, it sucks to watch the Eme pile grow tall and see our skinny piles beside it. All that risk. All that work. And all we get is a little over four thousand dollars apiece. But I’d rather have four thousand and still be alive than more money and end up dead. Except now I have to worry about getting caught. It’s not enough money to go to jail for, not by a long shot.
    “You tell them about the next one?” he asks Gabriel.
    “Yeah. I mentioned it.”
    What is he doing? I dropped my medal back there, and now we’re talking about the next job? There can’t be a next job. Today cinched that. Even if by some miracle I manage to get the medal back, we need to stop. Today was a warning. The medal. The girl. It’s over. Besides, what’s the rush? We never do a job this close on the heels of another. Soldado knows how bad an idea that is.
    “I got my guys ready to start diggin’ now,” Soldado says. “You’re gonna hit on Fourth of July weekend. Bank is closed. Plus, there’s construction going on in the building. Makes it less likely anyone’ll hear any noise or worry about vibrations from underground. Gives these guys plenty of time to make sure they can bust through the vault floor and gives you guys time to empty it, plus the deposit boxes. The only time we’ll ever get the opportunity on this one. And this time you get it all. Every last cent. None of this petty smash-and-grab stuff anymore.”
    Before I can think better of it, I blurt out, “We didn’t agree to do it.”
    “What’s there to think about? You do this job and it goes well? You’ll be rich.” Soldado leans back in his chair and looks at us, smiling. “We’ll take a break. Even if we wanted to do more jobs, the heat’ll be too much.” He’s basically repeating what Gabriel told us yesterday. “Imagine that.” He smiles again, wide enough that I can see all his teeth. “You got my word.”
    I look over at Benny, Carlos, and Eddie, all of them extra anxious to leave, like me. And then there’s Gabriel, cracking jokes with Twitch, acting like the gun sticking out of the waistband of Twitch’s jeans isn’t even there. Like he belongs or something.
    “We can’t do it,” I say, and before Soldado can argue, I turn and walk out, eyes half shut as I push through the crowd outside the door, hoping like mad that Benny, Carlos, and Eddie are behind me and that Twitch’s gun is still holstered in his jeans.

My alarm goes off, jarring me out of a nightmare about the bank robbery from yesterday morning. This time when the guy runs into me, he lifts his mask and it’s Harrison. He points his gun at my chest